My mother

Told me when I was very young

To not fall in love

It’s not worth it

You’ll get hurt

It never lasts

I get it now, how scared she must’ve been

But I was too young to notice

To know

What it meant to fall out of love.

So instead, I was angry

I was angry because my father loved

The same way a warrior fought:

With everything he had

My father loved love

My mother loved freedom

And so I loved freely.

I fell in love

with clouds, and seafoam, and poptarts and skateboards

I fell in love with girls that planted flowers

And boys who spoke in music

I fell in love with driving down the highway at night 

And the bleary lights of the gas station

I fell in love with countless strangers and books and new pens.

I’ve fallen in and out of love a million times

Who knows what will and won’t last?

Some things we can’t choose

Some things we can - to love

Passionately

Freely

Or not at all

So I chose.